Toulouse Olympique chief on Super League, recruitment target, Brendan Hands and travel costs

Toulouse Olympique won’t be making drastic changes to their squad now they have been promoted to Super League. That’s the message from the club’s director of sport Cedric Garcia, who has overseen his second promotion to Super League with the French outfit.

The first came ahead of the 2022 Super League season on the back of winning the Championship Grand Final. This one, though, came after their application to step up to the top flight was approved by an independent panel, chaired by Lord Jonathan Caine.

Toulouse were joined by York Knights in earning the call up to the enlarged 2026 Super League competition, with Bradford Bulls stepping up to the top flight on Thursday, after earning a place in the top 12 of IMG’s gradings.

Of course, the club has work to do to get ready for Super League between now and round one in February, but they won’t be recruiting too heavily with Garcia insisting the club are looking for around three or four quality recruits.

Toulouse Olympique boss on Super League preparations

“Since 2022 we kept our structure and organisation, we stayed with it and kept investing in this organisation,” Garcia said when asked what needs to be done to ensure the Championship Grand Final winners are ready. “There will be some additions to the roster of course because we want to add a bit of depth but we will not change everything.

“Our strategy has always been to build on the last few years because we firmly believe that in three months you cannot rebuild a team. The idea is we’ve re-signed all the players we wanted to re-sign and there will be three or four additions to the squad but not that much.

“In terms of the coaching staff, performance and medical staff, we’ll have one or two people coming on board but the core will stay there.”

Asked if Brendan Hands would be one of those signings after his successful loan spell from Parramatta Eels, Garcia added: “Brendan is contracted with Parramatta but we’ll definitely talk with Brendan and we hope that we can have him onboard because he did a tremendous job during the couple of months he was with us.

“He’s a very good bloke and he settled in well in Toulouse and that’s key for us.”

Of course, Toulouse are no strangers to Super League, but their one spell in the top flight was short lived with the club finishing the 2022 season bottom of the pile with just five wins to show for their efforts.

So what steps are the club taking to ensure next season goes differently?

“Firstly, when pre-season start, the players need to be pretty much in the same shape we left them so you don’t fall, you improve,” he said.

“Secondly, there was some disruption ahead of the 2022 season when we lost two key players (Johnathon Ford and Mark Kheirallah), that’s key for us. And, the last thing I would say is in terms of pre-season, our performance centre is key.

“In 2022, we had to shake things up and we weren’t ready. Now, when pre-season starts we know we will have everything ready to work hard and achieve the goal of being one of the fittest teams in the comp.”

However, Toulouse will still be paying travel costs next season with 12 UK-based Super League teams set to travel to the Stade Ernest Wallon next season.

“We’ve been paying them since 2018 and it will not change,” Garcia said. “It’s part of our agreement and it will continue. It’s not €1m, it’s around €500,00-€700,000.”